Indoor League XI Match Reports 2016

OD Cuaco Indoor team pip Blackheath 1/11

ScorecardAfter arriving at Kent’s impressive new indoor facility at the County Ground in Beckenham the first issue for the team was a quick read of the rules to find out how to play indoor cricket. The most experienced pro’s here were Joe East and Will Black who played last season for the district. Craig Westmacott had played before whereas the final trio of Andy Hall, Henry Hamilton and Laurence Sanders(w) were making debuts. Steve Sawko made up the rest of the team as 1st reserve and comedy genius from the sidelines.

No matter, bowling first, ODC were quickly in the zone and a tight start to the game culminated in a super run out involving Hall, Westmacott and Sanders. From there on in wickets were hard to come by, but the scoring was kept tight with Westmacott, Hall, Black and East sharing the bowling between them and Black claiming the only further wicket. Apologies for the lack of stats we will take a copy of the score card next time! At the end of their innings our opponents had left a total of 102 to beat.

Sanders and Westmacott were quickly in the runs before Sanders was bowled, bringing Hamilton to the crease. His bright innings was ended via a direct hit and Joe East stepped into the action. A great partnership here was finished when the impressive Westmacott fell to yet another direct hit for 17 and Hall joined East. This pair kept up with the rate for the next few overs but was ended when Hall failed to follow his own advice and run hard between the wickets (lesson learned!) and was out for 10.

Surely it was game over now with the run rate ever increasing and the last pair of East and Black? Not so, ODC required 22 off of the final over but a previous scoreboard error was then corrected resulting in an extra over appearing – happy days! Only 5 were scored off of the opposition’s best bowler leaving 17 from the final 6 balls to win. Cool, calm and collected this was passed with effortless ease by the pair who scored from every ball of the over. Joe East finished with the highest score in the match of 39 not out with Will Black unbeaten on 15. ODC are up and running. What a great game indoor cricket is!

ODC arrived in buoyant mood which was further boosted when skipper Westmacott won the toss and BTCL were put in. An unchanged team entered the field, erm okay hall, of play and ODC were again straight into their rhythm. No wickets fell early on but some excellent fielding from all kept the run rate around a respectable 10 an over, despite an opening partnership of 50. They say that wickets fall in clumps and so it proved with Westmacott, who bowled superbly throughout, opening his account with three wickets in four balls to reduce BTCL to 53 for 3 off of their first 6 overs. Thereafter two further wickets fell to run outs involving Sanders, Westmacott and Hall with Super Mario the star for BTCL making a half century.

So a target of 106 for victory and despite Sanders falling early to a run out a good partnership between Westmacott and Hamilton took ODC to 39 off of the first 4 overs and up with the run rate. Hamilton and East then fell in quick succession and the innings stalled. Westmacott got things going again before reaching retirement for 25 but boundaries were now desperately required and though Hall and Black scored 20 off of the last over it wasn’t enough to see ODC home and we finished 9 runs short, with Hall unbeaten on 24 and Black on 8.

Next up for ODC are table toppers Harvel at 18.30 on the 29th, the bigger they are the harder they fall!

ODCuaco could not manage to get enough runs on the board as they went down to league leaders Harvel by a score of 14 runs.

After winning the toss and batting Harvel began at a serious rate and were looking at one stage on posting a huge score. However once Will Black took the first wicket the run rate slowed and a tight last few overs restricted Harvel to a modest 104. Andy Hall took a fairly economical 1 for 24 off of his 3 overs and the fielding was slick, with Joe East claiming one run out while Andy Hall managed to somehow deflect a straight drive onto the stumps to run out Harvel’s dangerman – clearly this was superb thinking and awareness from Hall, rather than pure fluke.

ODC were confident ahead of the run chase and Westmacott and Sanders were spot on with the run rate with a partnership of 39 from the first 4 overs. We then witnessed one of the catches of the season to dismiss Sanders and Harvel began to exert some control. Hamilton was clean bowled for 6 and when Westmacott retired after scoring an unbeaten 25 the run rate was getting a bit too high for comfort. A first ball run out for Hall was followed by Black departing on 7. Joe East was unbeaten on 22 with Westmacott on 25 and ODC had finished 14 runs shy of their target.

On the bright side another good fielding performance from the team who need to beat Wickham Park in their final game before Christmas on the 13th of December in order to stay in touch.